Rotational, Vibrational and Translational Energy Distributions of Sputtered S ₂ Molecules

Abstract

We report measurements of the rotational, vibrational and translational energy distributions of a sputtered S2 molecule in the ground electronic state. The S2 is sputtered from frozen CS2 or from amorphous sulphur by Ar+ ion bombardment. The experimental results can be understood within a classical model by assuming either that each atom of the molecule receives an uncorrelated impulse (double collision), or that a single impulse is transferred to the molecule (single collision). The double-collision model gives a slightly better description of the experimental distributions over those provided by the single-collision model.